Pittsburgh Pirates: Excellent Starting Pitching, Ke'Bryan Hayes Lead the Way to a Sweep of the Royals

Another huge series for K'eBryan Hayes

Few hitters in baseball were as hot at the plate in the month of August as Ke'Bryan Hayes was. To be honest, there is a legitimate chance he is the National League Player of the Month. Honestly, this hot stretch goes back to the start of June. The third baseman has been the team's best hitter since the start of June and that strong performance at the plate continued over into this series.

In the first game of the series, Hayes had one of the best games of his MLB career. He went 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, a walk, a run scored, and he drove in a run. Then in game two, Hayes was 1-for-4 with a walk and a a go-ahead home run in the 8th inning.

Dating back to May 31st Hayes has 198 plate appearances. This number is not higher due to him missing essentially all of July with a back issue. In these 198 PAs he has hit for a .324/.354/.553 slash line with a .229 isolated slugging (ISO), 140 wRC+, 36% of his hits have gone for extra bases, and his average exit velocity is 92.7 MPH.

This is the best 200 PA stretch of his career and the best Hayes has looked at the plate since that spectacular September 2020 when he made his MLB debut. If Hayes can continue this through the final month of the season, then there will be plenty of optimism entering 2024 that he has finally turned a corner and put it all together as a hitter.